Month: May 2016

To augment our blog posts on events, our Literary Journal and the craft of writing, we are launching a new category called Resources. Here we will list specific advice, reference books, and websites for writers.

We begin with four outstanding topics graciously supplied by our popular workshop leader and published author, Anita Nolan. Click the links that follow:

The turnout of 15 members this month yielded several new members and an abundance of work to discuss – six excerpts were shared!

We introduced new two-sided tent card name signs printed in a large font. Placed on the tables in front of each member, they work better than small name tags in allowing us to all get to know each other better. Your name signs are ready and waiting for the June 19th meeting.

Members were encouraged to register on our blog http://www.psbwritingcenter.org and become a follower in order to be sure to be notified when new posts are added. It only requires creating a free Word Press login with a unique user name and password. Then you won’t miss any of our great content.

Anne Kaler shared information about the books we have shepherded through CreateSpace under the mantle of Writing Center Press. Examples of the four publications that were handed around spanned several genres: essays, memoir, non-fiction and a novel. Continue reading “May Writers Guild Meeting Recap”→

The romance genre started with the Cinderella story where the innocence and loneliness of the heroine, as well as her lack of a satisfactory mother or a female support group, hindered her success in life. That meant that the early heroine had to be rescued by the rich nobleman who knew what was best for her.

Still it is not all Cinderella’s fault entirely because she was deprived of a suitable mother-figure to mold her perception of herself. Mothers, you see, are necessary mentors for the female hero. The irony of this is that Hera, the queen of the Greek Gods, gave her name to the original hero Hercules whose name means “one who does great deeds in the name of Hera.” The word “heroine” is a weakened form of “hero” suggesting something smaller and of less value. Take, for example, the difference between the words “actor” and “actress”, “waiter” and “waitress”, and “poet” and “poetess”. The feminine form of each word suggests lesser ability even though the work accomplished is the same (and for 25% less pay.) Continue reading “Mothers and Quilts in Romance Novels”→

Like this:

Late on my second day in the hospital last winter, an elderly woman arrived and took the bed next to me. She slept through that night. The next morning she woke to a foreign environment.

She shouted, “Help me. Help me,” over and over. A nurse rushed in and tried to explain to the woman where she was. The woman kept shouting. The nurse explained that the woman’s own home health aide would be there soon. That didn’t work either. More and now louder shouting continued all morning.

By afternoon, the woman was hoarse and the aide finally arrived. The aide went immediately to the woman’s side to try to calm her. Nothing worked. The woman didn’t seem to recognize the aide. It was clear she was disoriented. The aide huddled with the nurse and explained the level of dementia the woman exhibited before this latest incident sent her to the hospital.